Press release 88/23 - 24.11.2023

Augsburg DAAD Prize 2023 awarded to Pilsook Cha

International student graduates recognised in awards ceremony for the academic year 2022/2023.

The DAAD prize for outstanding achievements of international students studying at German universities has been awarded to a student in the master’s degree programme in music therapy. The prize was awarded to Pilsook Cha on the 22nd of November. The yearly awards ceremony recognises the achievements of international student graduates from the previous academic year.

 

Pilsook Cha Private

Each year, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) awards the prize to international students at German universities who have shown remarkable social or intercultural commitment through their studies. Pilsook Cha from South Korea was awarded this year’s prize at the University of Augsburg.

Cha is studying in the master’s degree programme in music therapy at the University of Augsburg. Her outstanding academic performance is distinguished by her exceptional volunteer work. Cha is involved in a project that aims to minimise the consequences of post-operative delirium (POD), a serious complication marked by a severe loss of consciousness and perceptual awareness, at the Clinic for Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine at Augsburg University Hospital.

“Pilsook Cha made a significant contribution to the development of a clinical trial that consisted of an intervention that combined haptic and auditory musical experiences on a SoundPad and a conversation,” explains Prof Susanne Metzner, head of research and studies in music therapy at the Leopold Mozart College of Music. Cha played an important role in composing music specially designed for the project. “She began her voluntary work towards the end of the pandemic when intensive care units were under particular strain. Cha visited (and still continues to visit) patients in intensive care with the POD, sensitively adapting to each patient in order to be able to communicate with them. This requires not only a high degree of empathy but also the ability to tolerate a breakdown in communication as when it is delayed or faltering, neither forcing nor giving up on it,” explains Metzner.

Pilsook Cha holds a bachelor’s and a master’s degree specialising in piano. In 2004, she moved to Germany where she worked in Hamburg, Munich, and Berlin before coming to Augsburg to study music therapy.
 

International student graduates for the academic year 2022/23 at the University of Augsburg. © University of Augsburg

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